Kathleen Parker today on “The Final Hours”.
A friend’s late-night call cast light on the undecided’s milieu. She was filling out her ballot at home and had made every choice but one. The presidential ticket.
“I just can’t quite bring myself to do it. I hate Sarah Palin. Help me out here.”
I laughed. I refilled my glass. And why not? Life in these United States, as Reader’s Digest used to say, isn’t perfect, but neither is it Somalia.
Here’s what I told her. Make two lists — one of tangibles (war, taxes, health care) and one of intangibles (to be discussed) — assign a value (1-5) to each, and take out your calculator. Discount race unless it really matters, in which case, shred your ballot.
If McCain gets the highest score, then pray he inherited his mother’s longevity gene. If Obama is your man, then otherwise vote all Republican.
As even Democrats should do, lest one party control both Congress and the executive branch. That absolute power corrupts absolutely is a dictum that needs no defense. That both parties are equally corruptible is a monument to understatement. And gridlock, though we profess to hate it, is sometimes preferable to the alternatives.
As she listens to friends fill out election ballots, sipping on a fresh glass of merlot, nothing says high-minded sophistication like wracking your brain over having to pick that dimbulb from Alaska. You know, the one that put herself on school through scholarships, worked her way up from city council to mayor, ran against her own party to win an governership, all the while having five kids, one disabled. She’s not of the mind, not like that woman in New York and all her qualifications and was married to whats-his-name.
And don’t forget the nobility of political moderation, which Kathleen Parker seems to nod at as a virtue. After all, we’ve seen little to nothing of McCain or Obama over the past four years. As a matter of fact, they are so similar on the issues, it’s amazing anyone has decided who they are voting for. Those people? Smart. Sarah Palin? Dumb.
Look, I don’t expect everyone to fall in lockstep. I always felt the conservatives had the bigger tent. Show me a liberal Parker or Chris Buckley, they are a rarity. I can accept that. What I can’t accept is pure lockstep stupidity disguised as intellectual gandor.
An example: I love Christiopher Hitchens. He’s my favorite writer. I disagree with him as much as I agree and I find his lack of civility toward religion a little, shall we say, challenging when it come to reading him. But you know what he is and what you’re getting, which is part of the joy of reading him. The guy who absolutely obliterated Michael Moore, is the only journalist in the last five years to be to ]Iran, North Korea and Iraq, has pinned his disgust with Palin over her lack of press access and a pork bill involving fruit flies.
Give me something tangible. This is a race, there are two choices. How is Palin not qualified yet, Biden and Obama are? Parker is basing her dislike continually on her performce in some highly edited interviews. Biden can make the case of his senatorial experience, but he’s a walking gaffe-o-matic and he outright lies during debates and interviews. How is that not disqualifying? Obama, as Ahnold so delicately spoke, hasn’t even been in the senate as long as McCain was in a POW camp. His executive experience comes from organizing floundering community organizations to no success. That, and he has a decent jump shot. But hey, they could bullshit their way through Katie Couric interview.
Palin has truly been an illuminating experience. First there was the Red/Blue divide, Hollywood’s continued condecension toward the suburbia, south and the midwest. Now we have Palin. Some think it’s sexism (Parker suggests that McCain selected Palin based only on looks), and there is definitely some of that, but it’s also more hideous.
There’s a thuggish type of class warfare going on. There is a war against the middle class. You can also see it in the disdain for Joe Wurzelbacher. It’s been going on for a while and every year it boils further and further to the surface. Bush brought out the disconnect, but it’s turned into a torrent over Palin.
The message is simple: dare to step out of the basement, garage or field, you best beware.
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[...] His executive experience comes from organizing floundering community organizations to no success. That, and he has a decent jump shot. threedonia.com » Blog Archive » Class warfare [...]
I presume you’ve seen Iowahawk’s take on this?
http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/
[...] Class warfare The presidential ticket. “I just can’t quite bring myself to do it. I hate Sarah Palin. Help me out here.” I laughed. I refilled my glass. [...]
As soon as the 2004 election was over, I saw the Red State/Blue State crap starting up and, as much as I hoped it would go away, I knew it wouldn’t – though I contest to this day the idea that red and blue were majorly associated with either party before that election. More and more over the last few years, I’ve seen hatred seeting to the surface – and it is on both sides, as much as the reasonable people in either aisle don’t want to think so. I think it bothers me because there are no gradients – it’s far too close to simply ‘for’ and ‘against’ – or ‘have’ and ‘have not’, in the circles I travel in lately. And the only time one divides all people into two groups is so that one side can shoot at the other side.
That said, I am marvelously disappointed with all four of the front runners – McCain can’t decide if he’s a Conservative or a Maverick, and Obama is, simply put, a bastard. My disagreements with Palin are purely political, whereas I haven’t been able to stand Biden for years. So, I’m trying to think of the positives.
If McCain wins, things will get bad. But, the country won’t slide into the complete hell that it probably will under Obama.
And if Obama wins….well, at least my friends will quit all their whining, bitching and moaning and give me four years of peace and quiet.
That was me. Minor screw-up.
You could see it in the attitudes against Joe the plumber.
A plumber?? How does he know anything about business or taxes??
It’s pretty much the sort of thing women have been up against for a long time. Some women are, unfortunately, used to it and others fight and fuss every day against it, usually to no avail.
But these working middleclass people do know about taxes and business and small corporations. They have set them up, some failed, but many more succeeded. And so they have paid their way. They may have 100 employees or only 10. But they are not downtrodden idiots.
These are the voters. And these are the people who may not have said a whole lot during this election cycle, but they WILL vote.
That quote right there is so condescending and snooty, I wish someone would slap that woman silly.
Her friend “HATES” Sarah Palin? “HATES”!?!
Now I hate Osama, I hate the AIF, the Taliban and all other manner of people who try to kill innocents and wreak havoc on our world…but Sarah Palin? What the hell has she done to engender such feelings? I think someone needs to take a look in the mirror and take stock of their own life…if that woman inspires hatred in you.
Frecking idiots.
Great post, Floyd. I wish I had the talent to adequately write on this topic. I agree there is genuinely something wrong and it’s not red/blue. You are likely right, and it has more to do with class.
I have had a lot of experience in this. (I just typed a lengthy comment and deleted it. I wish I knew how to write coherently about this topic. It hits very close to home and I agree that there is something important going on here…)
Outlaw13,
I absolutely agree. It seems that our brains are designed to “fear” and “fret” and “hate” and “love” and “panic” according to some pre-determined level that cicrumstance nor logic can override. I assume you’ve heard of the heirarchy of needs? I meet some folks who have been completely pampered and coddled their whole lives and their gauge for the extremity of their circumstances is completely out of kilter. I guess we all have to unconditionally hate someone and if we’ve never been exposed to any real bastards; murderes, rapists, child molestors… Well, then Sarah Palin or your Biology Professor will have to do.
Maybe it’s akin to what I wrote here: http://www.threedonia.com/archives/459#comment-2327
The hatred for Palin is from many who also hate bloggers.
How dare the unwashed proletariat presume to comment upon issues? How dare we write our opinions down like the punditocracy?
Many bloggers didn’t go to the right schools. Some are even (horrors!) self-educated!
Why, soon these upstarts might start to think themselves equals not only to pundits and television talking heads but even to Hollywood celebrities!
Imagine the cheek of those bloggers! To presume that THEIR opinion is worth just as much as the opinion of Ed Begley, Jr.!
Hyunchback,
Welcome to Threedonia!
There might be a sort of “peasants storming the bastille” vibe that fosters some of the derision. I am amazed when people feel the opinions of a Palin or Joe the Plumber should be discounted, simply because they are not known in Beltway circles. If that’s your opinion, fine, but that’s not the government our founders had in mind or designed.
It is amazing to me that the fact that Obama has studied international politics, IN SCHOOL!, is sufficient to convince a lot of folks he’ll do swimmingly at international politics, in the REAL WORLD! Now does that mean he won’t? No. It simply means I have no idea. But just because he audited a course doesn’t mean he’ll know what to do, or be able to do it, in a real life situation.
Vis a vis Executive experience, Barack Obama has the thinnest resume of any Presidential candidate I can think of. Joe Wurzlbacker(sp?) is a real, honest to goodness guy, living in the real, honest to goodness world. I understand what Joe says and I would be happy having Joe next to me in a foxhole. I would be happy to have Sarah next to me in a foxhole. Barack? Biden? They are so narcissistic and self-centered I wouldn’t put it past them to jump ship if the battle was turning to apply for spots on the other team.
Again, I don’t know that they would act that way, but I do know that I don’t know. I know folks like Joe and Sarah. I don’t understand why anyone would want their voices quashed. Nor do I understand why anyone would elevate Barack, Biden or McCain’s speech over theirs. Our founders were very explicit. They did not want a monarchy. We are a nation governed by citizens. McCain and Biden have been in the Senate so long I’m not sure they’d recognize a citizen if one bit them on the face, and Barack seems like such an academic I don’t get a good feeling that he honestly understands the challenges of the proletariat.
I think you may have sold Obama short on the issue of changing sides.
He still hasn’t renounced Bill Ayers in any way despite facing mild rebukes. Let the record show that when the going got slightly uncomfortable he stuck with his side in the war against terror. He will never come over to ours.
Biden is a little less steadfast. When his top of the ticket is accused of socialism and his comments are put alongside those of Karl Marx he just throws a tantrum and goes to pout in the corner.
[...] is enjoying her new role as un-intellectual gadfly to the conservative movement. First, it was waxing poetic about the stupidity of Sarah Palin while chatting with friends and sipping fine drink. Then she stated that the key to the GOP winning [...]
[...] apparently hasn’t left the Republicans in full, they are just more readily able to criticize [...]
[...] you ask? For her self-styled Pulitzer-worthy insight such as this: A friend’s late-night call cast light on the undecided’s milieu. She was filling out her [...]
[...] used her column at the Washington Post to denigrate the tea party movement at every turn, especially the movement’s wariness of coastal elites, specifically its leadership through people like Sarah Palin, and with the worst stereotypical ad [...]